Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Parking Lot Chutzpah -- Fourteen Years of Suffering

I think this could make for a recurring segment or perhaps a community affair---the behavior of people driving their cars in parking lots astounds me. Fourteen years ago today (yes, on April Fool's Day) I moved to Baltimore from Tallahassee to see what Rob and I might make of life together. I was completely unprepared for the culture of rushing, entitlement, self-importance, and utter comitment to warring over parking issues I found here. My relatively genteel southern-ish sensibilities still reel in disbelief...

Today, for instance. I needed a few items for my bed, bath and beyond so I headed up to the strip mall. This particular parking lot isn't known so much for bad behavior as it for poor planning: too many hard turns with inadequate turning space. Like any other place, of course, there is apparently a prize awarded to the driver who gets to park closest to his/her destination; details are fuzzy here but there must be some incentive because people go to absurd lengths to get that ONE spot while other ones just like sit vacant just a bit further away... but I digress. Having arrived, I parked far enough away from the competitive parkers in an otherwise unoccupied row; it was actually the second slot from the thruway. I sat in my car for a few moments listening to the end of an NPR story. Whilst I did so a woman approached in her BMW SUV and tried to swing into the one spot in between the cement row end and my car; of course she was unable, its an impossible angle. Can you imagine what she did? Yes...she gestured and later screamed and gestured more rudely that I should move my car so she could park in that one spot...never mind the hundreds of empty spots all around us.

I just hate that. I just put my car in drive and easily slid into a spot three over and went about my business. Funny how she was very distracted by something in her purse causing her head to be turned and eyes lowered for quite some time as I walked by her into the store...

4 comments:

jill said...

Oy, honey - I feel your pain.

My least favorite thing is the inevitable situation where I come out of the store to find myself hemmed in by two massive SUVs on either side. So, I get in my car and cre.e.e.p out, only to have another massive SUV honk at me because my creeping interferes with their rushing down the aisle. Clearly, I must be an idiot if I can't SEE them there - except, wait: I can't. I have two of her brethren blocking the way!

I guess I'm supposed to wait until one of the owners of these giant vehicles moves and I can actually see. Silly me.

Teresa Daub said...

Kathy - I'm disarmed by the same behavior! Our household refers to the massive mess nearest the shopping destination as "the fray." As in, "Stay out of the fray." I take the first convenient spot I find and hoof it past the warriors. . . who likely need to extra steps as much as I do!

Teresa

KHM said...

Its a head scratcher, for sure. Why do people do that? My first encounter was at Towson Mall and maaaan....that parking garage could get *really* brutal (especially down by Nordstrom's...). Like once or twice I was really frightened that people were about to cross the line from insanely competitive to criminally violent...yeesh.

A big hello to the family, Teresa!

Special K said...

I can't wait until we run out of gas.